STEVE ISRAEL: Beatles for sale, but music still rings true

It started last week, when I wrote how bummed I was that the Beatles songs Michael Jackson bought are used on TV commercials to sell stuff.

"Good Day Sunshine" sells orange juice.

"In My Life" sells mattresses.

Is nothing sacred?

John Lennon and Paul McCartney didn't write those songs to sell OJ or mattresses.

That's why McCartney said this after another Beatles' song that Jackson bought, "Revolution," was used for a sneaker commercial.

"What Michael is doing cheapens the songs, which mean a lot not only to me, but to a generation of Beatles fans."

What's worse, I wrote, is that using those songs to sell stuff is yet another step toward a new generation of kids becoming consumers of products who think everything is about money, rather than aficionados of art who can be inspired by soul-stirring music,

Well, sentiments like those rang as true to many of you as "I Want to Hold Your Hand."

Listen:

"I'm right there with you on this, brother," wrote Jim Frey of Chester. "The first time I saw the mattress commercial, I thought, 'John Lennon must be rolling over in his grave right now.' Such a beautiful song, with heartfelt emotion reduced to a #*@% mattress. As much as I liked Michael Jackson's talents, I have never forgiven him for taking the Beatles' music from them and making it available for purposes such as this. As if he needed the money."

Amen, wrote Middletown's Rosemary Capozella.

"When I see another new commercial using a song from my past, I often turn to my husband and say 'It's sacrilege.'"

But even though Joe Haller of Monroe agrees that McCartney should protest the use of Beatles songs in commercials, he points out a double standard: McCartney owns the songs of another great rock 'n' roller, Buddy Holly.

"(And) a fair number of Buddy's songs have been used in commercials," writes the "huge fan" of the Beatles and Holly.

Then Haller adds this Beatle-inspired zinger:

Hey, Paul, he says: "You're not half the man you used to be."

But the worst thing about using those Beatles songs for commercials is their impact on today's kids, who just might think tunes like "Good Day Sunshine" or "In My Life" were written to sell OJ or mattresses — unless, of course, you're like Capozella or Warwick's Mike Corbin, who made sure their kids listened to the Beatles when they were growing up,

Take Corbin, whose sons Adam, 19, and Brian, 20, not only heard the Beatles, but listened to — and love — the LP versions.

But even if the only way kids hear the Beatles is in those crass commercials, their music is so vital, some of you said, it most certainly will survive — and thrive.

Bruce Bleach, who teaches at SUNY Orange, mentions a student who discovered the Beatles after hearing "In My Life" on that awful commercial.

"She is now a big fan of the Fab 4," Bleach writes. "Somehow, sometimes, the artistry can transcend the nonsense."

sisrael@th-record.com

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